‘We didn’t come to Israel for our children to be murdered’
Ethiopian-Israelis protest across country after 19-year-old buried
Angered by the death of Solomon Tekah on Sunday, thousands of protesters from the Ethiopian-Israeli community and others took to major roads and junctions on Tuesday to protest excessive police force directed at the community.
The country was brought to a standstill, with some of the biggest highways, such as the Trans-Israel Highway and Route 4, the Coastal Road and the Ayalon Highway all suffering closures in part, leading to massive traffic jams.
On Highway 431 close to Ramle a car being driven at high speed hit a protester without stopping. The protester was taken to hospital in moderate condition.
In some locations where protesters blocked the roads, there was a noticeable absence of police and of any efforts to remove the protesters for several hours, apparently out of a concern not to create further confrontation between the Ethiopian-Israeli community and the police.
In other locations however, such as Kiryat Ata, protesters threw stones and set a vehicle and tires on fire, and 19 protesters were arrested.
Fires were set at other junctions, including a car that was set ablaze at the Azrieli junction in Tel Aviv.
The Yokne’am junction was also blocked as were roads in Netanya, Ashkelon, Jerusalem and elsewhere during the evening.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the events late Tuesday.
“We are all mourning the tragic death of Solomon Tekah,” Netanyahu said. “We embrace the family, we embrace the Ethiopian community. It is dear to me, it is dear to all of us. These are not mere words.
“I know there are problems that need to be solved. We have worked hard and we have to work harder to solve them. But I ask you for one thing: stop blocking the roads. We are a state of law, we will not tolerate road blockages. I’m asking you that we solve the problems together while respecting the law.”
The police said on Tuesday that its investigation into the circumstances in which 19-year-old Tekah was killed was being conducted in a “thorough and comprehensive” manner, although the police statement said the court had issued a gag-order over details of the inquest.
Tekah was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer on Sunday.
The police and the lawyer of the police officer involved have claimed that his life had been endangered by rocks thrown by youths, while members of the Ethiopian community have asserted that Tekah’s death is the latest in a series of incidents of excessive police force against the community.
According to Walla, in a call to the 100 emergency police line made by the officer four minutes before he shot Tekah, he reported that stones were being thrown at him and that
he was being attacked, and he requested urgent police assistance.
The policeman himself was injured during the incident and was treated and released Monday night from the Carmel Medical Center in Haifa.
Earlier on Tuesday, hundreds of mourners attended the funeral of Tekah in the Haifa suburb of Kiryat Haim, where Tekah’s father spoke tearfully of his son and demanded an independent investigation into his death.
With heart-wrenching words translated from Amharic by a friend of the family, Solomon’s father, Varkah Tekah, asked his son for forgiveness for not being there to defend him.
“We want to request forgiveness from Solomon,” he said tearfully. “We weren’t there to defend him when the police killed him. We didn’t come to Israel for our children to be murdered. We will not pay the expensive price of our children dying young. Why are we burying a child?”
“This man is a murderer,” said Tekah’s father of the officer who killed him. “How did he kill my son in cold blood? He was a child.”
Tekah said specifically that the body to carry out the investigation should not be the Department for the Investigation of Police (DIP), which the Ethiopian-Israeli community has accused of sweeping under the carpet incidents of police violence against it. Specifically, the community has condemned the DIP for failing to punish officers who have past killed or acted with excessive force toward members of the community.
“We came [to Israel] because of Zionism, this is also our country, we are soldiers and police officers and we never killed anyone in cold blood,” Tekah said. “We demand that justice and the law is done.”
During the funeral procession
Tekah fainted and required medical assistance.
MK Gadi Yevarkan – who is from the Ethiopian-Israeli community and gave a eulogy at the funeral – said it was “impossible to describe” the sadness he felt, and said he could not offer words of hope.
“Everything is not okay, nothing is okay,” he said. “I want to promise that Solomon is the last one, but I think we will meet again at another funeral. The people who should give eulogies are the leaders of the country. Every mother [from the Ethiopian-Israeli community] worries whenever her children go out at night that they will encounter a police officer. Every mother in Israel should therefore go and protest Solomon’s death.” •